Plasma has long been employed to process substrates to form electronic devices. For example, plasma enhanced etching has long been employed to process semiconductor wafers into dies in the manufacture of integrated circuits or to process flat panels into flat panel displays for devices such as portable mobile devices, flat screen TVs, computer displays, and the like.
To facilitate discussion, FIG. 1 shows a typical capacitively coupled plasma processing system having an upper electrode 102, a lower electrode 104 on which a wafer 106 may be disposed for processing. Lower electrode 104 is typically disposed inside of the plasma chamber of which chamber wall 108 is shown. The region between upper electrode 102 and lower electrode 104 above wafer 106 is known as a plasma generating region denoted by reference number 110 in the example of FIG. 1. There is typically a plurality of confinement rings 112, which are substantially concentric rings disposed around and above lower electrode 104 to define and confine the plasma for processing wafer 106. These components are conventional and are not further elaborated here.
To process wafer 106, a process gas is introduced into plasma generating region 110, and RF energy is supplied to one or more of upper electrode 102 and lower electrode 104 in order to facilitate the ignition and sustenance of plasma in plasma generating region 110 for processing wafer 106. In the example of FIG. 1, a powered lower electrode and a grounded upper electrode are employed as an example set up to generate the plasma although this set up is not a requirement and both electrodes may be provided with a plurality of RF signals, for example. RF energy is provided to the lower electrode 104 from RF power supply 120 via an RF conductor 122, which is typically a conductive rod. The RF delivery path follows the direction of arrows 134A and 134B in the cutaway FIG. 1 to allow the RF energy to couple with the plasma in plasma generating region 110. RF current returns to ground following the direction of arrows 140 and 142 in the example of FIG. 1. Again, these mechanisms are known and are conventional in the field of plasma processing and are well known to those skilled in the art.
In the ideal situation, the RF delivery current (delineated by arrows 134A and 134B) and the ground RF return current (delineated by arrows 140 and 142) are symmetric in the azimuthal direction around the chamber. In other words, given a reference orientation on the wafer surface, the ideal situation would see the RF delivery and RF return current being symmetric at any angle theta from a reference radius on the wafer surface. However, practical limitations due to chamber construction and other processing realities may introduce non-symmetry into the chamber, which influences the azimuthal uniformity of processing results on wafer 106.
To elaborate, when the chamber components are not symmetric around the center of the chamber (as viewed from the top of the chamber) for example, the non-symmetry of chamber components influences the RF flux lines, the pressure, plasma density, RF delivery current, or RF ground return current such that the azimuthal non-uniformity of the process may result in non-uniform process results on the processed wafer.
FIG. 2A depicts various factors affecting the symmetry of components within the chamber and/or affecting the wafer symmetry relative to the chamber center, which may in turn affect the azimuthal uniformity of the process results on the wafer surface. With respect to FIG. 2A, there is shown a top view of chamber 200. There is shown chamber wall 202, within which there is disposed a lower electrode 204. A wafer 206 is shown disposed slightly off-center relative to lower electrode 204. As such, the processing center is offset from the center of the substrate, introducing azimuthal non-uniformity of processing results on substrate 206.
As another example, lower electrode 204 may be offset from the center of chamber 200, which may introduce non-symmetry and azimuthal non-uniformity of process results even if wafer 206 is centered correctly on lower electrode 204. Since the lower electrode 204 is charged relative to the grounded chamber wall 202, the different distances between the edge of the lower electrode 204 and chamber wall 202 around periphery of lower electrode 204 introduces variations in the parasitic coupling between the charged lower electrode and the grounded chamber wall, which in turns affect the plasma density at different locations on wafer 206, thereby introducing azimuthal non-uniformity.
Further, the RF delivery conductor (122 of FIG. 1) may be offset relative to the chamber enclosure, likewise introducing variations in the parasitic coupling between the RF conductor and the grounded chamber wall, thereby affecting the azimuthal uniformity of processing results on the wafer. Still further, the presence of certain mechanical components, such as the cantilever arm 208 that supports lower electrode 204 inside chamber 202, presents an impediment to the exhaust gas flow, which typically flows from the plasma generating region around the edge of the lower electrode to be exhausted toward the bottom of the lower electrode (150 and 152 of FIG. 1). The impediment of the gas flow due to the presence of the cantilever arm would affect the local pressure in the region of the lever arm, thereby affecting the plasma density and in turn affecting the azimuthal uniformity of the process results. Still another factor affecting azimuthal uniformity is the presence of wafer loading port 210, which exists on only one side of chamber 200.
FIG. 2B is a side view of the chamber to illustrate that certain inherent characteristics of the chamber design also introduce non-symmetry and therefore affect the azimuthal uniformity of the process results. For example, one side 252 of the lower electrode 204 may be provided with components such as gas feed, coolant tubes, and the like, which components change the inductance that is presented to any current traveling along the surface of lower electrode 204. Some of these components may not be present on another side 254 of the lower electrode 204. As such, one side of the wafer, which rests on lower electrode 204, may experience a different process result relative to the other side of that wafer, again introducing azimuthal non-uniformity. Further, the fact that the RF feed and/or exhaust current path is a sideway feed in the direction of arrow 220 means that the RF return current has variable-length azimuthal path to return to the power supply depending on whether the RF ground return current is measured on the inside path 222 or the outside path 224
The differences in the lengths of the RF ground return paths introduce different inductances along the ground return paths, which also affect the impedances of the ground return paths. These variations thus create non-symmetry and azimuthal non-uniformity of the process results.
When the process requirements are fairly liberal (for example, when the device sizes are large and/or device density is low) azimuthal non-uniformity is a lesser concern. As device sizes become smaller and device density increases, it is important to maintain uniformity not only in the radial direction (from the center to the edge of the wafer but also in the azimuthal direction at any given angle theta from a reference radius R on the wafer surface. For example, some customers nowadays require that azimuthal non-uniformity be at 1% or even below the 1% threshold. Accordingly, there are desired improved methods and apparatus for managing azimuthal non-uniformity of process results in a plasma processing chamber.